This is a Staff I made for My daughter shortly after she was Born.

I wanted to do something different so I went way way back. The Staff itself is a piece of Cedar 5 foot tall which I cut down all the limbs and sanded smooth> The Head is a piece of Hand spun Glass with a clear 3 piece braid running through the interior

Finally I wrapped the end with thin Leather lacing to cover the mounting.

The next thing I did was carve the Hand grip this alone took almost 9 hours(Granted not all at the same time lol. I did this patteren on both sides of the staff Finally carving in a banding at each end.

The next step was to carve the 2 celtic Knots or the Arwen on both sides.The Arwen represents the balance between the energy released by man and woman.I put two Arwens on here one for each of my daughters.

I then added in the Banding and what I call the  3 eyes between the hand grip and the Arwens ( Ok I'll admit no meaning here it was just some Shinies to add on. lol)

Finally since I had been looking around at Celtic Imagery I wanted to do something that had some meanings so I chose some symbols that I thought conveyed what every Parent wanted for their children.



The First Symbol I chose and carved into the staff was "Eoh" or Yew Tree





symbolising  the Transformation she would soon go through As she grew.

The Next Symbol I chose was "Jara" Or Harvest ...which represents a time for preparation

in the hope that she would be prepared for life's ups and downs.

The next Symbol I chose was "Wynn" For the Happiness I wished for her through out her life.

And Finally the Last Symbol I chose was "Elhaz" Or Elk

I chose this symbol for a specfic reason

The elk in Celtic Lore was a powerful totemic animal with very strong protective energies.
This Rune is said to guard against all manner of attacks and dangers. so my reason was simple I wanted something that symbolized the safety and strength I wanted for her as she grew.


Now that all the carving was done I added in the copper banding and other metals to the carved indentions.
Once that was done I added the Quartz to the leather ends and I placed 6 coats of Polyurethane to protect the wood and keep the metals from tarnishing out. I will say that yes most of the gemming is fake gems however the topaz in the Arwens are real as is the one pink ruby...no its not worth much a friend thats a rock hound got that on one of his digs and another member of his club cut it. The staff is now 13 years old and I am hoping to start replacing the other fake gems with some of the stones he has been finding.

And there ya have it thought I would share that with you guys even if it was a little sappy! But it was for my daughter so .."No Shame in My Game!"